Top 10 best practices for LinkedIn Video (Part 1)

I often get asked on my tips for LinkedIn Video...I have broken it down into 2 parts. Please comment below if you would like to see Part 2.

One of the best ways to boost engagement with your brand on LinkedIn is video. Because video is ranked highly by its algorithm, posts on LinkedIn containing video are significantly more likely to rise to the top of users’ feeds.??

But in the eyes of the LinkedIn algorithm, not all videos are of equal value. So knowing the best way to post video to LinkedIn, and what to include in a video is vital, especially if you are engaging influencers to share your video content.??

In this post, I explore the Top 10 best practices for LinkedIn video, and we provide some tips on what to use to get the best-looking video for your audiences.

#1: Choose your video posting strategy carefully

There are basically four ways you can post video to LinkedIn:

1. Post videos from another platform (eg: YouTube, Vimeo, Tiktok): these can be any length, but they are the least favoured video formats in the LinkedIn algorithm.?
2. LinkedIn “native” videos (pre-recorded): Up to 10 minutes in length and directly uploaded to LinkedIn.
3. LinkedIn Live videos: 10 minutes to 4 hours of live-streamed content for a LinkedIn audience, but requires a broadcasting account which must be requested and has some limitations on accessibility.
4. LinkedIn Ad videos: Up to 30 minutes in length and part of an ad placement strategy.

It may be obvious, but of these, the ad placement strategy is the one that has the best chance of rising to the top of a user’s feed. But LinkedIn native and Live video formats are both much more highly regarded by the algorithm, than sharing a link to a video held on another platform. So if you want engagement, consider at least the native video upload rather than relying on embedding a YouTube video. You can always upload these videos to multiple platforms.

#2: Get your video specifications right

This is the fiddly bit. Because so many people do access video over their mobile device, you are actually better with square video formats for video than 16:9 or even 4:3 ratios. If you’re recording a video on a mobile device, you can generate a square video by recording in a vertical format, but you should remember the top and bottom of the video may be cropped.??

If your recording system is not capable of generating square videos, you can generate a square video in post-production (see video editing below).?

As for the tech details, this is what matters:

• Minimum video duration: 3 seconds
• Resolution range: 256x144 (sub-standard definition) to 4096x2304 (greater than 4K)
• Aspect ratio: 1:2.4 - 2.4:1
• Frame rates: 10fps - 60 fps
• Bit rates: 192 kbps - 30 Mbps

You can also check out LinkedIn’s video file troubleshooting advice for some more detail on accepted file formats and file size.?

#3: Sound is important? - but so are subtitles

The majority of people accessing LinkedIn are doing so for professional purposes, and will often be accessing the site from a workplace office. In such environments, it’s not always appropriate or even possible to play videos with the sound on. Also among LinkedIn users who access the platform from their mobile devices, the majority never turn the sound on, for videos. As such, where there is a voice track or there's messaging associated with a video, you should also have subtitling for that content.??

LinkedIn has its own advice on closed captions. And there are a series of services out there that can be used to add subtitles to a video in post-production. Then for live video streams, you can look at using some of the automatic subtitling that’s available.?

All this doesn’t mean you should ignore sound quality when recording video. Good, directional microphones should be used for narration. And an appropriate music sound bed should be considered for a product walkthrough or case study. There are lots of royalty-free music sources online, but make sure you get the right licence for global sharing of social content, to avoid any risk of copyright infringement.?

#4 Storyboard your video

Even if your video is a fireside chat or Q&A with an expert, it pays to plan out the video so that the content flows smoothly and that you keep your audience engaged. Storyboarding also helps identify whether there is anything missing from your video, and gives you a chance to illustrate complex ideas more effectively - perhaps with animations, or even just a simple diagram.

There are lots of storyboarding tools out there that can help with this process, but even a standard flowchart will help you visualise the story you’re telling with your video.

#5 Edit your video

It’s extremely rare for a video of an event, a live conversation or panel session to run without there being any fluffs or presentation issues. And as for product demos, you absolutely will need to speed up and slow down certain aspects of a walkthrough to maintain interest.

Always edit the videos you record for the best audience experience. Audiences on LinkedIn will be more likely to be interested in your brand if you demonstrate professionalism and make your video subjects and stories look good.

There are a range of premium as well as free and open-source video editing tools available, but if you don’t currently have a video editing suite, then we recommend Shotcut. It will take you a few days to get used to the functionality and interface, but this is an excellent tool for video editing.

So you have got this far...would you like to see Part 2 and the last 5 tips?